NEW DELHI: Union Minister for Road Transport & Highways, Shipping and Water Resources, River Development & Ganga Rejuvenation Nitin Gadkari inaugurated national highways projects worth Rs 9533 crore at separate events in Roing and Ziro in Arunachal Pradesh.
He was accompanied by the state Chief Minister Pema Khandu and Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju.
Speaking on the occasion, Gadkari said that these infrastructure projects will transform the picture of states in the North Eastern region of the country by way of development, job creation, tourism and employment for the youth.
While complementing the agencies involved for timely completion of the projects despite obstacles like land acquisition, forest and environment clearances etc, he said, these projects will ensure 24X7 connectivity between places and save travel time between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
The Minister stated that road network in Arunachal Pradesh has increased from 1804 km to 2885 km in the last four years since 2014, and a sum of Rs 28,000 crore is being spent on construction of highways in the State.
Gadkari reiterated the government’s commitment towards socio-economic development of the entire north east region, and gave the assurance that work will be taken up at the earliest on highways projects which could not take off earlier.
In Roing, Gadkari inaugurated bridges across Dibang and Lohit River System, including approach road between Chowkham-Digaru. The total length of this project is 30.95 km and cost Rs 1508.30 Crore.
The Minister also inaugurated the recently two-laned, 25.14 km Mahadevpur to Buri Dihing section of NH-52 B, constructed at a cost of Rs 136.60 Crore and 22.23 km Bordumsa- Namchik section of NH-52 B constructed at a cost of Rs 189.91 Crore.
In addition to the above, the Minister lay the foundation for about 96.47 km of national highways projects costing Rs 2114.82 Crore in Roing. These include two-laning of the 74.86 km Roing-Hunli Section of Hunli-Anini Road (NH-313) at a cost of Rs 1718.59 Crore; 2-laning of the 11.31km Hayuliang-Hawai Road section of NH-113 at Rs 256.66 Crore and the 10.3 km Hunli-Anini section of NH-313 at a cost of Rs 139.37 Crore.
In Ziro, Shri Gadkari lay the foundation for 472 km of national highways costing Rs 5583.92 Crore. These include the 26.12 Km Akajan-Likabali-Bame road at Rs 374.73 Crore, and 6 packages on Joram-Kolorlang Road on NH 713 for a total length of 94.39 km and cost Rs 1253.19 Crore, and relaunched a project for 2-laning of 351.38 km of Potin to Pangin section of NH-229 at a cost of Rs 3956 Crore.